The Winter Night. 321 



with a coating of ice and rime. As soon as ice is formed 

 in this temperature, the frost forces it to throw out its 

 salinity on the surface, and this itself freezes into pretty 

 salt flowers, resembling hoar-frost. The temperature is 

 between 38 F. (-39 C.) and 40 F. (-40 C.) below 

 zero, but when there is added to this a biting wind, 

 with a velocity of from 9 to 16 feet per second, it must 

 be allowed that it is rather 'cool in the shade.' 



" Sverdrup and I agreed to-day that the Christmas 

 holidays had better stop now, and the usual life begin 

 again ; too much idleness is not good for us. It cannot 

 be called a full nor a complicated one, this life of ours, 

 but it has one advantage, that we are all satisfied with it, 

 such as it is." 



" They are still working in the engine-room, but 

 expect to finish what they are doing to the boiler in a 

 few clays, and then all is done there. Then the turning 

 lathe is to be set up in the hold, and tools for it have to 

 be forged. There is often a job for Smith Lars, and 

 then the forge flames forward by the forecastle, and 

 sends its red glow on to the rime-covered rigging-, 

 and farther up into the starry night, and out over the 

 waste of ice. From far off you can hear the strokes 

 on the anvil ringing through the silent night. When 

 one is wandering alone out there, and the well known 

 sound reaches one's ear, and one sees the red glow, 

 memory recalls less solitary scenes. While one stands 

 gazing, perhaps a light moves along the deck, and 



Y 



